The invention relates to a dryer comprising a drying chamber to accommodate damp items to be dried and an essentially closed process air duct to circulate process air through the drying chamber, said process air duct having a heat source for heating the process air before its entry into the drying chamber and a heat sink for cooling the process air after it leaves the drying chamber, as well as a first lint filter arranged between the drying chamber and the heat source to which a first cleaning device is assigned.
A dryer for drying washing by means of an air flow is known from publications EP 1 788 140 A1, EP 1 788 141 A2 and EP 1 788 142 A2. In the dryer a mesh filter for filtering lint out of the air flow is arranged in the area of the end shield in the process air duct, with said mesh forming a first lint filter. A squeegee is used to wipe off the lint collected in the process air duct by the filter and store it in a container adjacent to the squeegee and to the filter. Together with further components, the squeegee and the container thus form a first cleaning device. However, the space available in the area of the squeegee for accommodating it means that the container is dimensioned relatively small. Lint from around 7 to 10 drying processes can be collected therein. Since the lint is stored in the dry state it occupies a relatively large volume. On the one hand the accessibility to the accumulation container is restricted during this drying and on the other hand the accumulation volume is limited by the fact that it is disposed in a restricted-space zone of the dryer, which results in maintenance to remove the lint from the container having to be undertaken at relatively frequent intervals. The dryer also has a heater as a heat source and an air-air heat exchanger as a heat sink in the process air duct.